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Building Your Business

When it comes to looking at our money there are two things to focus on: money going out and money coming in.
I have a few ideas about how to keep the money going out at a minimum so you see more profits. I hope these ideas will help you!
Avoid having to pre-pay for items you're interesting in selling to your clients. This year I had about three sources of jewelry by local designers that I wanted to show my clients. With each of the sources, I made an arrangement to show the work and only pay for the items that my clients purchased. I had no outlay to worry about. Because I know my clients well, I was confident about the pieces in each collection that I chose to bring to my clients. It never hurts to ask if you can "borrow" items for a day or two or more.
For sponsored ...

Creativity is part of your business savvy
One of the members of the Monthly Marketing Bundle program came from a Silicon Valley company. When she needed something done to creatively present branded messages from her company, all she had to do was call on someone down the hall in the Art Department.
I don't think I know of many people who have an art department to call on to help with their image consulting marketing materials. I do know a few people who have graphic artists (often new ones, fresh out of school and looking for work to fill out their portfolios) who they collaborate with to create flyers for classes and mailers for clients.
If you don't have an art department and you haven't found a graphic artist to collaborate with, you still have options and ...

Last night in our Monthly Marketing Bundle strategy call we talked about successes people are having and then went over the article, tip sheet, and speech outline I’d prepared for them, brainstorming ways to use them in their marketing. All of that was part of our normal monthly format.
What was different this month is that I saved time at the end for everyone to share a highlight of the year. It could be something that happened with a client, someone they met—anything big or small.
It was awesome to hear voices chiming in saying that the Monthly Marketing Bundle (MMB) Summer Retreat was the biggest highlight for many. I have to agree; it was pretty remarkable. It's on my list too!
With members pitching in to help we created our own three-day conference here in Sonoma ...

This story I’m about to tell you about a bruised arm is going to relate to your business success in 2017, really. Stay with me.
The day was going fine and then this happened.
I got a boo-boo on my arm. It’s one of those big ones that gets super colorful (fun to watch), but also super sore. It definitely had my attention, but then I remembered something I had learned from my acupuncturist, Phil. He told me once before to go right to the sore and bruised spot and start rubbing it vigorously, several times a day.
What? Go to where it hurts and intentionally make it hurt even more?
My thought had been to baby it, not touch it, and watch it fade in a week or two.
What Phil offered me was a self-care activity to make myself better. He said that by rubbing it I’d be ...

The other night I was reflecting on the 30+ years that I’ve been in business. I grabbed the notebook sitting on the bed stand and started writing down the things that I’ve found to be the most important.
If someone were to ask me what advice I had for people working in our industry, I’d have to start with these. Hope you enjoy!
1. It’s okay to dream big but don’t forget to take the small steps that are necessary to build your business.
2. Getting there really is the best part. Enjoy all the steps along the way.
3. Make a practice of paying off your business credit card every month.
4. Save. Every week. Get a savings account for your business and watch that balance grow. You’ll be happy you did this when it comes to paying quarterly taxes.
5. Not all clients are the right ...

What were the chances that I'd run into my friend, Helena Chenn, in Los Gatos after leaving a client and just five minutes before heading for the airport?
I want to tell you what that moment was like. It was heaven!
Erin and I (Erin's my assistant and my daughter) had stopped at Starbuck's before heading to the airport. We were in the car when we heard Helena shout our names from her car window. I got out of the car while she parked hers and we had a few minutes standing in that little shopping area giggling and chatting.
What a love fest!
Not only are we old friends (I'm guessing we met in 1990 or so) but we're both members of the Association of Image Consultants International. We've both held offices on our local chapter of AICI and the International chapter as well. ...

I remember visiting my friend, Marie, who had recently lost her husband, Carl. We were sitting in her kitchen, having a cup of tea with sliced cantaloupe, telling stories about Carl. We somehow got on the subject of women and money and she said, “Did you know that the person who printed the Declaration of Independence was a woman? Carl always used to say, ‘Yeah, and I bet she did it for free.’” We roared with laughter!
Now why was it easy to imagine Carl’s comment could be true? Because the person who inked that auspicious document was a talented artist and a woman—two categories of people that traditionally find it hard to put value on their work.
Carl was a patient mentor to me
Carl was an artist who worked mostly in metal. I have three metal tables in my home ...

When I saw the announcement that the AICI Chicago Chapter was having a special October weekend that included meeting and speaking with Maria Pinto at her new boutique called M2057, plus going to the opening of the exhibition at the Chicago History Museum called Making Mainboucher: the First American Couturier, I knew I had to make plane reservations and head east.
The program interested me, of course: Maria Pinto has dressed the likes of Michelle Obama and Oprah Winfrey and is currently involved in a very innovative way of selling clothes to women. And Mainboucher is the most influential American Couturier that no one knows about. I was plenty intrigued.
But being with colleagues for the weekend was even more irresistible. Leaving ...